Happy Birthday Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy, on September 20, 1934. At age 14, she entered into a beauty contest where she placed as one of the finalists. It was there that Sophia caught the attention of film producer Carlo Ponti, some 22 years her senior, whom she eventually married in 1966 once he finally obtained a divorce from his first wife. Perhaps he was the only father figure she ever had. Under his guidance, Sophia was put under contract and appeared as an extra in ten films beginning in 1950, before working her way up to supporting roles. In these early films, she was credited as "Sofia Lazzaro" because people joked her beauty could raise Lazzarus from the dead.

By her late teens, Sophia was playing lead roles in many Italian features such as La favorita (1953) and Aida (1953). In 1957, she embarked on a successful acting career in the United States, starring in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), Legend of the Lost (1957), and The Pride and the Passion (1957) that year. While under contract to Paramount Pictures, Sophia starred in Desire Under the Elms (1958), The Key (1958), The Black Orchid (1958), It Started in Naples (1960), Heller in Pink Tights (1960), A Breath of Scandal (1960), and The Millionairess (1960) before returning to Italy to star in Two Women (1960). The film was a period piece about a woman living in war-torn Italy who is raped while trying to protect her young daughter. Originally cast as the more glamorous child, Sophia fought against type and was re-cast as the mother, evidencing a lack of vanity and proving herself as a genuine actress. This performance received international acclaim and was honored with an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Sophia remained a bona fide international movie star throughout the sixties and seventies, making films on both sides of the Atlantic, and starring opposite such leading men as Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, and Charlton Heston. Her American films included El Cid (1961), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Arabesque (1966), Man of La Mancha (1972), and The Cassandra Crossing (1976). She gained a wider respect with her Italian films, especially Marriage Italian Style (1964) and A Special Day (1977). During these years she received a second Oscar nomination and won five Golden Globe Awards.

From the eighties onward, Sophia's appearances on the big screen came few and far between. In 1991 Sophia received an Honorary Academy Award for her body of work, and was declared "one of world cinema's greatest treasures."

 (Source:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000047/bio)

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni

The most romantic and dynamic pairing of a leading man and women in the world of film was Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. Just saying and hearing their names titillated American audiences in the 1960s and 70s and when these actors emoted on the big screen, it was like every adult in the audience believed it was for their eyes only.

 In 1965, when Photoplay magazine asked its readers to vote for their favorite new Hollywood stars Italian born Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren came in the top two on a list that included Italian Americans Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. During the 1960s, when much of the film industry was in the doldrums film directors and stars, imported from Italy, attracted audiences back to the movie houses. These internationally famous superstars created an enviable image of the cool, good-looking jet setter.

 Marcello Mastroianni, with his tall, dark, handsome good looks just naturally filled the roll of the bon vivant man of the world. American movie fans adored his on screen persona. While his rakish smile and devil-may-care attitude, appealed to American men, who envied his unencumbered lifestyle? But it was Mastroianni's sensitive, romantic, nature that attracted his faithful female followers.

 The luscious Sophia Loren was by far Mastroianni's most popular costar, indeed Sophia Loren is considered to be the most famous Italian actress of all time.

These two Italian super stars inspired movie fans to a better lifestyle; they made the kind of film that made every moviegoer's heart beat faster, not with fear, but with anticipation for the warmth, love and romance that is Italy's own.

Sophia Loren on working with Marcello

Well, to do another film with Marcello was something that—every time I was asked to do a film with Marcello, I said, “Yes, yes, yes,” without reading a script. Because I knew that with him everything was going to be all right. Because he knew me and I knew him. His sense of humor. His way of improvising. His way of not learning his lines, ever. And sometimes he would come on the set with his eyes open like this and say, “What am I going to say now?” And I'd say, “No it's your problem, you should have woken up in the morning a little earlier and learned your lines.” So there was always this kind of joke with Marcello, but of course, when you work with your partner for twenty years of your life, you know him as he was your brother, your husband, your everything. So, I mean, everything was fine. And also because I trusted him so much, because he was a great, great actor. He always knew what he was doing. But he always pretended not to know, and this I liked very much

Their movies

1. A Slice of Life, 1954

2. Too bad she’s bad, 1954

3. The Miller’s Beautiful Wife, 1955

4. Lucky To Be a Woman, 1956

5. Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. 1963

6. Marriage Italian Style, 1964

7. Sunflower, 1970

8. The Priest’s Wife, 1970

9. La Pupa del gangster, 1975

10. Sex Pot, 1975

11. A Special Day, 1977

12. Blood feud, 1978

13. Pret-a-porter, 1994

I read somewhere that they made 17 films together. I am not able to get the names of other 4 movies. If you can help, I shall update the list.

Now, it is very difficult to select one film to tell you the story, but one has to compromise. Let us read the story of Sunflower.

Sunflower a 1970 Italian drama film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. Giovanna (Sophia Loren) and Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) get married to delay Antonio's deployment during World War II. After that buys them twelve days of happiness, they try another scheme, in which Antonio pretends to be a crazy man. Finally, Antonio is sent to the Russian Front. When the war is over, Antonio does not return and is listed as missing in action. Despite the odds, Giovanna is convinced her true love has survived the war and is still in Russia. Determined, she journeys to Russia to find him. In Russia, Giovanna visits the sunflower fields, where there is supposedly one flower for each fallen Italian soldier, and where the Germans forced the Italians to dig their own mass graves. Eventually, Giovanna finds Antonio, but by now he has started a second family with a woman who saved his life, and they have one daughter. Childless, having been faithful to her husband, Giovanna returns to Italy, heartbroken, but unwilling to disrupt her love's new life. Some years later, Antonio returns to Giovanna, asking her to come back with him to Russia. Meanwhile, Giovanna has tried to move on with her own life, moving out of their first home together and into her own apartment. She works in a factory and is living with a man, with whom she has a baby boy. Antonio visits her and tries to explain his new life, how war changes a man, how safe he felt with his new woman after years of death. Unwilling to ruin Antonio's daughter's or her own new son's life, Giovanna refuses to leave Italy, expressing an intense emotional maturity in her choice. As they part, Antonio gives her a fur, which he had promised years before that he'd bring back for her. The lovers lock eyes as Antonio's train takes him away from Giovanna, and from Italy, forever.

Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck in Arabesque directed by Stanley Donen, 1966

Read more: http://bit.ly/2lfxMDv 
Sofia Loren (30 rare photos) http://buff.ly/2pMvvTd